LAST year Thurrock Council's Trading Standards Ports Team stopped more than £47m worth of unsafe and non-compliant goods from being delivered to shops across the country.

Items seized include dangerous phone chargers, telescopic ladders which collapsed and ruptured during testing, potentially dangerous trampolines, unsafe tools including glue guns and sanders and necklaces that contained 4890 times the permitted amount of carcinogenic cadmium, as well as dangerous toys and cosmetics.

The team works at Thurrock's four busy ports: London Gateway Port, Tilbury Port, Tilbury 2 and Purfleet Port, as well as the local delivery and customs warehouses.

Cllr Lynda Heath and one of the many dangerous items stopped for leaving local ports.

Cllr Lynda Heath, cabinet member for public protection, constitutional and civic affairs, said: "With Thurrock being home to four of the busiest ports in the country our Trading Standards ports team do an excellent job stopping dangerous and non-compliant goods from ever making it into the shops, let alone the hands of unsuspecting shoppers.

"The facts speak for themselves, they stopped 1.4 million products that do not meet UK safety standards, worth of an incredible £47 million, from leaving the port and going on sale.

"The work they do protects people in Thurrock, and far beyond, from spending their hard-earned money on things that could actually end up injuring them, or making them sick."